Update: Chase from White Center followed by crash, search in Highland Park

(Emanuel Kozma, suspect being sought after King County Sheriff’s Office pursuit ended at 17th/Trenton)8:07 PM: Thanks to everyone for the notes/texts. There’s a police search under way right now in south Highland Park, including K-9 officers – scanner traffic earlier indicated a pursuit may have been involved. One WSB’er says a car wound up on its side in an alley in the 17th/Trenton area. Another tells us that an officer at the scene told her this may have started with King County Sheriff’s Office deputies to the south and crossed the line into the city with Seattle Police helping. More to come.

8:17 PM: Our crew on the scene tells us that the Guardian One law-enforcement helicopter has joined the search. 17th is closed for several blocks in the area, as are parts of other streets – we won’t be specific about them since it’s an active search situation and detailing the full perimeter could jeopardize the investigation.

8:19 PM: IMPORTANT: If you are in that area, stay inside. We have just been told that sheriffs know who they are looking for and that the suspect is believed to be armed and dangerous.

8:35 PM: Expecting more info on the suspect from KCSO shortly. Just added video clip from the scene where the car went on its side – you can hear the chopper overhead.

8:40 PM: From Sgt. Cindi West:

Around 730 tonight our gang detectives attempted to stop a vehicle driven by a known convicted felon who they believe was armed with a firearm. When the detectives attempted to stop the vehicle near SW108/15 SW the vehicle fled north toward Seattle. As detectives chased the vehicle the occupants through a handgun out the window of the car. (that weapon has been recovered)

In the area of 17th and Henderson detectives lost the car. They learned from SPD that there was a roll -over accident at 17th and Trenton. Detectives went to that location and saw that it was the vehicle they had been trying to stop. A 22 year old female was in the car and taken to Highline Hospital with minor injuries. The male,, Emanuel Kozma, fled on foot in the area. He was last seen wearing a blue shirt with cutoff sleeves and dark pants.

The photo of him is very recent and he still has the goatee. He is said to be about 24 years old and about 5’7”. He may still be armed so residents should call 911 if they see him.

8:51 PM UPDATE: Moved the photo to the top of the story and moved the scene video down a line. No new information, but if you think you’ve seen him, or anything else suspicious in the surrounding area, please call 911.

9:04 PM: Just looked up the suspect’s background. He just got out of jail at 4:30 pm for a drug-related arrest.

9:50 PM: The search has scaled back and the helicopter has moved on; no arrest, though, according to Sgt. West. The tow truck has arrived to take away the crashed car.

(Photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
TV crews have shown up too. Police will continue to be on alert; if you see/hear anything/anyone suspicious, again, call 911.

3:43 PM THURSDAY: Still on the loose. We asked Sgt. West about the circumstances of his Tuesday arrest, which was followed by his “conditional release” (per the jail register) from jail on Wednesday afternoon. She says, “He was arrested on 10/9/12 around 5:20 PM in the area of 1200 SW 102 St. There are no charges on him at this time but he was booked for investigation of VUCSA.” (That’s “Violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act” – in other words, a drug charge, as we noted last night. We are checking with the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to see if there was any documentation they had received yet detailing circumstances of the case for possible consideration of charges.)

ok so we were at highland park walking the dog and noticed the helicopter right over our house – we basically picked up the dog and came right back home – thanks to the blog for telling us what the heck is going on – we are going to stay inside!!

Thanks for the update. I hear the helicopters above and checked here to see what was happening. I called my mom who is in the radius you refer to to keep her doors locked. Hope they find who the are searching for.

I live on 17th next to Cloverdale. I just got back from the scene on Trenton, between 17th and 18th. I stood at the NW corner of 17th and Trenton.

There is a car on its side, pointed west, on the south side, over the sidewalk. A small car, about the size of an “80s Civic. It looked to me like it was in front of the house just east of the alley.

There is a Burien police SUV across Trenton on the west side of the intersection. There is what looked like a King County police car parked on the north side of the street, opposite the car on its side. Two policemen were standing in the middle of the street, between the suspect’s car and the police car. One was talking on some device held to his ear. The other was just looking around, and had something in his hands that I couldn’t make out.

Copter still circling.

I loaded my pistol. The camber is empty and the safety is on, but this is the type of situation a got it for.

I’m staying inside with locked doors and closed blinds as the crime scene is a block away and helicopter keeps circling over my block – only problem is I was supposed to pick up my gf at Westwood Village as her bus dropped her off there…I told her what was going on and to go inside a store and wait – I’m afraid to leave the house but I need to pick her up and don’t want her walking home! How will I know when it’s safe to go pick her up?

Not to play arm-chair cop, but I find it interesting that the chopper seems to be primarily over the area of the car roll over… if it the car was found at 19:30, you’d think the suspect would have moved as fast and far as he could.

Not that I know anything at all about it, but pondering the protocols for a search like this is kind of fascinating.

Please as trackguy says do NOT give out various specifics. While I doubt the suspect’s checking here, you never know – it’s possible to go to google news and hit oh say police search west seattle and wind up here. Also, please do not post scanner info that hasn’t been confirmed. We are monitoring various sources and police are pursuing all KINDS of calls from folks in the area – here’s hoping one finally turns out to be him. ALSO there is always a chance someone will lay low overnight and then try to walk away, so if no arrest tonight, keep an eye out in the morning … we had a famous case of a murderer getting arrested after someone spotted him climbing out of a ravine hours later, mentioned it here, everyone yelled CALL POLICE, the person did, then someone else who had seen the comment thread spotted the guy miles away … he was arrested, jailed, charged, and pleaded guilty earlier this year. Thanks to everyone for being vigilant and safe ….. TR

WE ARE LOOKING UP HIS CRIMINAL RECORDS– WHY IS THIS MAN OUT? HE OBVIOUSLY IS A CAREER CRIMINAL AND SHOULD BE LOCKED UP FOR A LONG TIME… we stopped looking after page 7– weapons, assault, theft, robbery, drugs, hit and run, traffic-reckless driving, harassment, violation of no contact order, DV charges, malicious mischief.. the list goes on and on and on… IPHONE APP- CRIMINAL PAGES..

Bean, you’d be surprised. I believe some of those were arrests, not necessarily convictions, but still – Anyone interested in what happens AFTER a suspect is arrested, come to the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council next Tuesday night at 7 pm at SW Precinct, Delridge/Webster. The chief of staff for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is the special guest and he’s ready for tough questions.

I wonder why he was let out of jail, and what he did to get chased down? It doesn’t make sense to me if they let him go why were they trying to catch him just a few hours later? Different departments of the police?

I agree with Cjp.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the leash law breakers out for a massive dog walk right about now. Creep’s probably hiding out on the Westcrest trails. Chopper still up there, been over an hour.
Anyway, thanks WSB for being so ON it!

We have two police cars on either side of our street in the area of westwood one is a k9 unit. Makes me feel somewhat comforted the bad guy isn’t coming this way…and if he does officers are within arms reach. As always thank you officers for risking your lives so I don’t have to…

Thanks, JC. Meantime, KCSO’s Sgt. Cindi West says no arrest yet but she’ll let us know if there is one. They do tend to scale back searches after a while if they feel they’ve searched every bit of turf they can. The chopper is very helpful for that.

Besides Sgt. West telling us no arrest yet, and the search scaling back, my co-publisher is back at the scene now and reports that “every possible TV truck is here.” That’s all we have right now. Checking also to see if the car has been towed yet. – TR

SJ2- thats the channel. Its primarily dispatch traffic channels, not intra-officer traffic or anything. You aren’t going to hear any updates about a chase from units involved for example.

When a multi unit fire is underway however, if you get the right channel, you may hear quite a bit more communication from the site HQ unit, the various teams, who is going in, where the EMS staging is, etc.

If there is another call reported in due to a sighting or something, you will possibly hear the dispatch call out for a unit to respond, for example.

Yikes. Sometimes you have to give credit to criminal talent. Released at 4:30, crashes car by 7:30 (stolen 80’s Honda?). In three hours, he also obtains one or two guns (obviously forgot to wait 5 days or go through a background check). Assuming the female in the car was his GF, that was a quickie too (or he is going to wish it was if he goes back to jail). WOW….

So I live very close to all this and work downtown until 11pm… not exactly sure if I want to go home at all, walking from my car to my house is short but with only a few porch lights to brighten up a dark night and having had my house broken into a few montha ago isn’t helping my courage here. Please keep updating so I know when it’s safe(r) to go home.

We – that’s just how it goes. Unsettling, yes. Officers swarmed the area by ground and by air; on the scanner, we heard them check out several reports from people thinking there might be a suspicious noise or person outside their home … so far nothing found. As I wrote earlier, might be hours later. Or he might have hopped a bus and left the area.

I can’t believe I was so close to this and heard nothing. I went out for a quick dinner around 8, came home and heard a helicopter go over, but not hover. I didn’t hear anything until after 9. Yikes! Hopefully they catch him soon.

OMG, you people over react! Do you know how many convicted felons are waiting for a bus at your fave stop? Ever go out to eat in the junction or especially in white center? Geesh prolly every other person you pass has a rap sheet! Not every bad guy is a killer – if they were there would be bodies on every corner. Guy prolly just got made by the cops and didnt want to go back in at the moment. Clown cant drive and so getting chased he crashed. I dont see the big deal here – its just life in the city.

@thisizsparta
You wouldn’t say “what is the big deal” if you were the one robbed or assulted by this guy. While every city has there share of felons and crime, it is unsettling to hear/see this on your street. I thank WSB and all comments for keeping me informed. As a parent and someone who wants the best well being for my community; I would rather over react and be proactivly prepard, than turn the other check.

Saw the police on Delridge while I innocently waited in a parking lot one block away for a friend to load band gear – doors wide open. Sure glad he didn’t jump in my car! Needless to say, the crime that takes place in West Seattle is NOTHING compared to larger cities like NY or Phili which some of us may have encountered. WSB, I appreciate your timely reporting and look forward to a day when the helicopters stop flying above. It’s changed – no question. You guys are great for this community.

Really Sparta? Over reacting, huh? Do you have a family or anyone you care about, or dare I say, love in your life? Probably not.

So having a guy who just got out of jail, probably armed roaming around a block from my house makes me concerned. Concerned for my family and neighbors. Things I and most people care about. Something your dumbass can’t understand.

So, how long is your rap sheet ThisizSparta ?
The guy is out of jail 3 hours and has to ditch a gun before he crashes his car.
You sure create a glib defense for him.
One of your buddies?
You and Rachel, what a sweet pair of neighbors.

@ trackguy1978, your comment made me laugh :). Like that guy would really be like ” let’s check out the West Seattle Blog!” Funny! Anyway hope everyone is safe and have all windows and doors locked!!!!

Sparta… I think the term I’m looking for to describe someone I imagine to make a comment like that is slightly egotistical and sociopathic… this whole inability to understand/sympathize with others thing is not helping anyone. I get that you’re not scared and you think everybody is over reacting but you’re obviously not empathizing with anyone but yourself.
I normally don’t respond to trolls but I felt the need on this one. There are families in this area, there are women who live alone in this area, there are elderly people who live in this area, there are many many many diferent types of people who live here and not all of us feel confident that we could overpower a gun toting desperate individual if confronted by one. I’m sure you think that because of this we shouldn’t live in this area but not everyone can afford to live where we want to or where we necessarily feel the safest. Sometimes where we live just falls into our lap and we take an opportunity.
I get that these are comments and you have the right to your opinion however I do wonder what exactly you are trying to say. That we are all whimps? That we shouldn’t be afraid of walking alone at night? That we shouldn’t live here? That we shouldn’t comfort each other, sound off to one another or help each other or support each other? If that’s what you are trying to say I do not understand why you would even take the time to post in the first place because ultimately it seems you want to give advice or an opinion but you aren’t compassionate enough to listen to others fears or even realize that your advice may or may not be helpfull or for that matter I’m not sure you even considered your entire audience.
Many of us have lived in bigger cities with higher crime rates, and when things like this happens a community coming together to be alert and lookout for it’s members seems to always have a more likely chance of seeing justice or preventing future crimes. Just because crime is here around where we live does not mean we should just lie down and passivly accept it. It just means we need to be more of a community when it happens.

It’s a pretty sad day for society when someone with a rap sheet that includes: weapons, assault, theft, robbery, drugs, hit and run, traffic-reckless driving, harassment, violation of no contact order, DV charges, malicious mischief, etc. is let out of jail and within 4 hours, already has a gun in posession and is running from the law, crashes his car due to no regard for anyone else’s life in an attempt to escape, and leaves his female companion who is hurt from the car flipping over to fend for herself, is considered “no big deal.”

When things like this are considered “normal” or no big deal by the masses, we as a society are in trouble.

ThisizSparta, thanks for perpetuating the idea that everyone in White Center is a criminal. I doubt HIGHLY that most people I pass have criminal records. I’ve lived here my whole life. I was in White Center eating dinner while all this was happening. I didn’t feel any worry or anxiety.

This is not an overreaction. This is a convicted felon carrying a weapon he is no longer allowed to have. He raced through busy White Center into a neighborhood, rolled his car into someone’s yard, and then abandoned the person he was with. He clearly has no regard for others and needs to be found soon before he gets desperate and hurts someone.

Hey fellas, it’s o.k. Some people get concerned, some people don’t worry about it. You may react however you feel most comfortable. I brought the dogs in and locked the doors, left the porch light on. Some people might want to head to a friend’s house for the night. There’s no need to get personal. You’d certainly hate to go against your gut instinct and have something bad happen, so just make yourself comfortable and hope for the best.

It amazes me how one person can terrorize a community and yet the court system keeps letting him out. His rap sheet will double in size over time too. He is a felon and can’t have guns, yet has no regard to that rule. Someday he may be shot by an innocent home owner as he tries to burgarlarize or perhaps by police. But, we will hear about him again some day. People like this will never learn nor have a conscience. Therefore don’t care about you or others well being , nor himself. For all we know, this guy left the neighborhood pretty quickly by car jacking someone. It’s a shame he had to make so many watch their backs last night and keep people from their normal lives. GREAT JOB COURT SYSTEM.

I apologize – trolling is against WSB rules and we don’t usually let it stand – but there are some eloquent retorts and I hate to have to prune those too. Any time you see overt trolling, personal insults, etc., please flag us in case we missed it – editor@westseattleblog.com (which is our catch-all mailbox for everything). Thanks!

“A 2002 study survey showed that among nearly 275,000 prisoners released in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years, and 51.8% were back in prison. However, the study found no evidence that spending more time in prison raises the recidivism rate, and found that those serving the longest time, 61 months or more, had a slightly lower re-arrest rate (54.2%) than every other category of prisoners. This is most likely explained by the older average age of those released with the longest sentences, and the study shows a strong negative correlation between recidivism and age upon release.” (Wikipedia)

So, roughly half go back. How would you decide which ones to hold and which ones to let go?

Everyone keeps asking “Why was this guy let out?!?” Well, look who you’re voting for in this state! If you actually voted people in office that had some balls, maybe they would be tough on crime and lock these guys up for a long time. People always seem to have their heads in the sand until these bad guys are in their own back yard.

I don’t think you should categorize someone as “trolling” simply because they have a different opinion than you. There was no offense to anyone in his comment.

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LSWS, I don’t believe it was so much content, but tone.

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This is very close to the homes of many people that are posting here. I have a friend that lives very close by, and another that is also relatively close by.

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Sure, I’ve seen comments, a bit more so, perhaps, on other incidents involving a bad guy on the loose, that WSB has reported on, where it seemed like some of the posters were a bit over-panicky, but who are we to say how someone should react, if we are 3 or 4 miles away from where the incident went down?

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This is how people remain aware; sharing info that will hopefully prevent this guy from harming anyone, and perhaps aid in catching him.

WSB: Any idea what judge turned this guy loose? Did he make bail or what? I’d be interested to know the background on that, not because I wanna razz the judge, but just so we could answer the question everyone seems to be asking, which is: Why was this guy out running loose on the town?
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If you can give me an idea of where to start looking for this info, I’d appreciate it.

The criminal justice system is complex, and ascribing responsibility is often a challenge to folks who are not working within that system. I’ve heard many, many misconceptions from WSB commenters in this and other posts, misconceptions like 1) the police are responsible for prosecuting, trying and eventually releasing people from jail, 2) prosecutors have absolute latitude in determining what to charge someone with, 3) judges have latitude in determining sentencing limits, 4) Seattle, King County and Washington State have infinite capacity in its court and jail system, 5) prosecutors have the ability to treat each and every case like a trial of the century, 6) it’s possible to have cops on every corner and lock all criminals away with our county/state/city budgets (which are, incidentally, all struggling to stay out of the red presently).

I got one of the tidbits I was looking for – a little more about the Tuesday arrest, which happened in White Center. It was clearly not a major case – and therefore not only my radar before this, so I can’t say what happened in court – first-appearance court is often in the jailhouse, and when there is a major case, we go down there because the details of the hearing, what the prosecutor said, what the defense lawyer said, what the judge said, are not available unless you are there. I also have a question out to prosecutors about whether there is any documentation to go with the presumed bail hearing – if there is, that might include the actual police report, though it still won’t say why the judge let the guy go on conditional release.

Word, bridgetosomewhere! It makes me incredibly sad to see people write posts to the effect of “We just need more jails! Lock ’em up and throw away the key! These durn liberals jut let these criminals roam free!” and the like. As a former Harborview Psych ward counselor and mental health worker for many years, I can vouch for the reality of the downward spiral many marginalized people get sucked into – starting from where they were born, the color of skin they were born with, the income of their parents, the level of violence they were exposed to as children, etc. You can’t just fix these underlying problems of society by locking away everyone who looks or acts “scary”. I worked with many people suffering from mental illness – folks who had to be physically restrained and medicated for many hours at a time at intake. That scary naked person you saw in the news running down the highway screaming about aliens? He was probably my patient. Many stories of how folks ended up at my place of work.

But when they finally calmed down, and we were able to take their history, it was heartbreaking to hear these stories. It was also terrible to see these folks get stabilized on their meds and have a tiny spark of hope at being able to utilize the scant resources (if any) we had available to them after they were released, only to see them fail and return again, or worse – wind up dead.

I’m not referring to this guy in particular. Honestly, the DV charges alone make me think he could simply be an arsehole (hey – there’s a lot of those), but these blanket statements against “liberals” like me always concern me because they are just so false. People who are against the prison industrial complex don’t feel that way because we want criminals to roam free and kill you, your friends, and family. It’s a common misperception among those in the “right” against those in the “left” (though I despise these labels and wish we could see how much we all have in common as human beings!). There’s a lot of dots to be connected when you look at crime and why people commit criminal acts. There’s some pretty remarkable people trying to make a difference at the level of the children who grow up in these marginalized communities. Ending the violence really starts there. But guess what! Funding has disappeared for many of these organizations, and I can attest that both the Dems and Reps shared responsibility in slashing care for our mentally ill. Wiping out assistance for low income and marginalized populations and supporting candidates who do is a vote for increased crime, plain and simple. Eventually they may lock away all the “criminals” for life and everyone can feel safer, but I kinda doubt it.

Just don’t close your mind to the possibilities, because there’s a lot of good people working hard to find more practical solutions.

Just my 2 pesos. And incidentally I live in the area this man was roaming, and I, too, felt scared!

He was booked “for investigation” of Vucsa..charges hadn’t been filed when he was released. Release on specific conditions is normal for a non-violent category case. That can change following charging. Prosecutor probably agreed with release., because needed more time to investigate. If you keep him in jail the clock starts ticking to a charging deadline.

OK, thanks for that info WSB and Carole. Carole, if what you say is true, then the guy must not have been considered a risk for fleeing or reoffending and that’s why they didn’t hold him. Maybe that was a good call, maybe not. On the one hand, it does kind of sound like this car theft was a “crime of opportunity” as opposed to being something court could have anticipated. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy had a rap sheet involving violence or flight, something that should have tipped people off that he was a risk.
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Oh well. Hindsight’s 20/20. Sometimes not even that.

@JustJen – VERY well stated. As a former police officer and resident of the Delridge/Trenton intersection, I was concerned for others in the area, though not overly worried for myself. Guys like this, who think mainly of themselves, are more likely to flee the area that stick around, or take a home/person hostage. Still, I didn’t go for a stroll that evening, just to be safe.

Those of you that ask “why was he released”… it’s just as JustJen and others have stated. There is a fiscal limit to the amount of time we can detain or incarcerate. Elect representatives that will tax more and apply it to the correctional system and we can incarcerate them longer. This guy seems like a good candidate for the three strikes rule.

As for lobotomizing criminals in Juvenile Detention, that’s just ignorant. I’m sure Malcolm and MLK would disagree, having come from that, and worse, situation. As a child I made a stupid choice and went to Juvenile Detention, albeit for less than a day, and I went on to be a contributing member of society.

What it boils down to is this: everyone has their own fears, confidences and belief structure. When you go toss a blanket judgement on others opinions, you lose what makes us a community. If we lose that sense of community, we can’t band together and do what’s right for the community as a whole. As a result, people like the suspect in question (we all know he’s an offender at this point and not a suspect, but I’ll be PC about it) here end up missing whatever chance they have of being successful member of the community.

Try to keep each others point of view in mind, only make contributions that help rather than question, take part in your local community meetings to effect a change and you’ll find things will improve. Hopefully. It’s the best you can do.

Thanks, EU. Also FYI, aside from the location of the arrest, additional info so far has not been available – no referral to the prosecuting attorney’s office as of last check. (Again, for that part of the picture, I really hope folks will bring questions to the Crime Prevention Council meeting – questions for police too, about any neighborhood concerns – 7 pm next Tuesday, SW Precinct, with Ian Goodhew, a top manager from the KCPAO, the guest.)

Enjoy playing cards? Make plans to be at Meeples Games (3727 California SW) on Thursday night to play a new card game with the local dad and daughter who created it. Their announcement: West Seattle father and daughter team, Chad and Lillian Gray, invite you to come and play their new card game, Goa...